NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez asked a federal judge on Thursday to delay his end-of-January sentencing on bribery charges and acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, saying his family would suffer a “tremendous emotional toll” if the New Jersey Democrat were sentenced during his wife’s trial.

His lawyers told Judge Sidney H. Stein in a letter that Nadine Menendez would face a jury that might find it impossible not to hear about her husband’s sentencing if it occurred on its scheduled date, eight days into her trial.

They recommended moving the sentencing to a date immediately after his wife’s trial, which might not conclude until March. The 70-year-old Menendez resigned in the weeks after his July conviction on 16 charges, including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud and obstruction of justice. He has challenged the conviction after prosecutors recYently revealed that jurors were permitted to see some evidence during deliberations that was supposed to be excluded from the trial.

— The Associated Press